Edwin Rodriguez won't fight for less than $1 million

Tuesday

Sep 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Back home after watching the world's best pound-for-pound fighter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., hammer out a convincing win in Las Vegas, Worcester super middleweight Edwin "La Bomba" Rodriguez reiterated on Monday that he won't take a fight against arguably the second-best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet, Andre Ward, unless his share of the purse is boosted to $1 million.

Rodriguez (24-0-0, 16 knockouts), ranked No. 1 by the WBC, has been offered an HBO fight on Nov. 16 against Ward, the WBA Super champion, who is 26-0-0 with 14 KOs. But the 28-year-old Rodriguez thinks his proposed $800,000 purse is unfair.

"If they give me what's fair, that fight is 100 percent happening," Rodriguez said from his home. "I'm heading to training camp (in Houston) on Wednesday to get prepared for Andre Ward. If they come up (in price) and agree to what my team and (manager) Al Haymon asked for, then we'll make the fight happen."

The 29-year-old Ward said on Twitter recently that he has signed the Nov. 16 bout agreement and that "the ball is in his (Rodriguez's) court." Rodriguez countered on Monday that Ward "signed the wrong paper" if it called for only an $800,000 purse for the challenger.

"As of right now," Rodriguez said, "I don't think the fight is going to happen, but if we get what we're asking for, I want to be in a position where I'm not going to say no to the fight just because" he isn't ready.

In August, Rodriguez turned down an HBO offer to fight Ward on Sept. 28, saying the date didn't give him enough time to prepare.

"I don't want to get caught not being ready for the biggest fight of my career," he said. "So if they come up with what we think is fair, I'll be ready."

Haymon is trying to negotiate a higher purse. Rodriguez has said he wants $200,000 more, claiming the fight is worth at least $5 million. If not, he said he'll try to work out a title fight with WBC champion Sakio Bika or something else before the end of the year.

Lou DiBella, Rodriguez's promoter, said after the fighter's first-round TKO of Denis Grachev in July's final of the Monte Carlo Million Dollar Super Four tournament that he thought Rodriguez was ready to take on Bika, IBF champion Carl Froch, or former champions Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler or Arthur Abraham — but that he needed a bit more seasoning before fighting Ward.

"Lou DiBella's my promoter, and he doesn't fight for me," Rodriguez said. "It would have been better to fight guys that Andre has already fought like Bika, Kessler, Froch, and then Ward, but it's not happening like that. I feel like I'm ready. My trainer, Ronnie Shields, feels like we're ready."

On the other hand, this might be a time when Ward is the most vulnerable. He hasn't fought in a year, and he had surgery in January for a tear in his right shoulder, suffered while training in November for a proposed defense against Kelly Pavlik.

Ward returned to the gym in March and began sparring in late June, but hasn't fought since his 10th-round TKO of Chad Dawson on Sept. 8, 2012.

"It is a good time (to fight Ward)," Rodriguez agreed, "but it's not a good time just because of (his) injury. It's a good time because I feel that I can beat him. Based on him coming off an injury and everything else, that's a plus.

"But at the same time, he's the No. 2 pound-for-pound (fighter) right after Floyd Mayweather, and Canelo (Alvarez) just made $15 million to fight Mayweather. Mayweather made about $50 million. I'm not saying I want crazy money like that — that (kind of) money is not there with Andre Ward. But I want a fair cut of the money that is there."

Rodriguez was asked if he thinks he has made enough of a name for himself to be making purse demands.

"If they don't think I'm established enough to get what's fair, then I don't want the fight," he said. "I have other choices. I could go the WBC road and end up fighting Sakio Bika for the title and stopping him. I think I have a chance to stop Sakio Bika and do something that Andre Ward wasn't able to do (Ward won a 12-round decision over Bika in 2010).

"I'm not going to take a fight against the No. 2 pound-for-pound guy if I'm not going to get compensated for it. Give me what's fair for this fight, and we'll make it happen. If not, I'll work my way up. I'm undefeated, I'm 24-0, I'm still young. I know I believe in myself to accomplish the things that I need to accomplish to be able to get what's fair for this type of fight. And if it's not today, then it'll be the next time we get the fight going."